Three-phase Brushless Motor Touts Board Space Savings

Texas Instruments introduced the first in a new line of integrated three-phase brushless motor pre-drivers. The DRV8301 is said to reduce board space as much as 60 percent compared to the next closest integrated solution. It can drive sub-10-A to 60-A external FETs, providing current scalability, desirable thermal performance and efficiency in brushless DC (BLDC) and permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) applications. It includes a 1.5-A step-down voltage regulator to power the system microcontroller (MCU); two current-sense amplifiers with integrated input and feedback resistors for current measurements; and a SPI interface for device configuration from the MCU.